Ahmed Khalil delivers a captain’s performance as Al Ahli take a step closer to AGL title

Reigning Asian Player of the Year's first-half header enough to settle match and move Dubai club six points clear of their opponents at the top with just three matches remaining.

Ahmed Khalil, in red and black, was the matchwinner for Al Ahli against Al Ain.
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Al Ahli 1 (Khalil 38’)

Al Ain 0

Story of the match

DUBAI // Ahmed Khalil lost Mohanad Salem, met Everton Ribeiro’s free kick at the near post and glanced the ball across Al Ain’s goal and into the back of the net.

Al Ahli had their moment, the decider in a match deemed decisive in the tightest of Arabian Gulf League title races, an opener that looks to have slammed shut Al Ain's hopes of retaining the championship.

Ahli are six points clear with three rounds remaining, sealed by a seventh successive victory as they hunt down a seventh top-flight crown. In contrast, the champions’ crown has slipped – the defeat followed two points dropped at home to Al Nasr – and thus it seems a long way back from here.

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Al Ahli v Al Ain for the UAE football title: Where the match will be won and lost

Five previous meetings between Al Ahli and Al Ain

Khalil settled it, a precious intervention, a captain's contribution. The UAE international striker flicked home Ribeiro's cross on 38 minutes, threw out his arms and leapt over the hoardings behind the Al Ain net and in front of the away support.

Khalil knew it, the majority of the 10,000-strong crowd at the Rashid Stadium knew it: Ahli, too, had hurdled what is surely their toughest remaining assignment in this season’s title race.

Al Ain require an improbable run of results to claw back an almost insurmountable margin; the Garden City club, second best for most, are fast running out of games and ultimately out of time.

As if it was not before, it most certainly is advantage Ahli now.

Khalil would leave the pitch on the hour after picking up an injury, but by the end it mattered little: he had provided the telling touch, done enough to clinch an all-important clash. Asian football’s reigning player of the year could conclude the campaign with another trinket, another affirmation that he has morphed into Ahli’s go-to guy, an unlikely hero.

Al Ain were outfought and outthought. They began with their attacking players in foreign positions: winger Danilo Asprilla led the line, striker Douglas was pushed wide left and Omar Abdulrahman deployed on the opposite flank. The experiment did not work and, despite soon reverting to type, Al Ain eventually had too much work to do.

They poured forward deep into injury time, an extended period that infuriated Cosmin Olaroiu and led to his banishment to the stands, but Ahli stood strong. The Dubai club are within touching distance of the finishing line.

Man of the match: Kwon Kyung-won

The South Korean was employed in the centre of defence and, in Salmeen Khamis’s absence, was a rock. Dealt well with Al Ain’s attack, made countless interceptions and then, as the visitors pushed in search of an equaliser, repelled every ball into the penalty area. Towering performance.

What they said

Catalin Raducan, Ahli assistant coach: "It was a big victory for us, one big step in front to win the league, but nothing is finished now. We still have next three very, very difficult games. We need to take points to be sure. I congratulate the players for how they fight. At this moment we are very happy. The three points were very, very important."

Zlatko Dalic, Al Ain coach: "Now the difference is six points, a big difference. I cannot say anything against my players, especially in the second half when they tried everything but weren't lucky. We have to continue the hard work and turn our minds to the President's Cup and Asian Champions League. We will try to do the best in the next three league games, but we can't expect someone to help us."

The National’s verdict

The celebrations at the final whistle conveyed how important a victory this is for Ahli. They do not look like being caught, claiming a deserved three points to pull clear of Al Ain. They will not like admitting it, but the current champions must now shift focus to other competitions.

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